Rapture and Requiem
by Rise and Fall
Summary: A thousand years ago, Kalos hosted a feud between beast and man that devastated the land. Since then, Pokemon and people have been at odds. A team of young tamers seek one powerful being to heal the land and the rift. However, they're not the only ones who seek this being-and the threat of a repeated past looms over all of Kalos. A Pokemon X Nuzlocke.
1. The Walker

"Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?"  
― Garth Nix, _Sabriel_

* * *

_It's gaining on me,_ Alena Fulbright realized as her knees threatened to give. The night was young; the sky was still smeared with gold at the horizon, but the shadows were long. They reached for her as she pounded the forest floor.

_If it catches me, I'm done for. That'll be it. Dead out here in the forest, all by myself._ The thought quickened her, until finally her boot-clad foot caught a root and sent her flying.

Her face slammed, hard, against the forest floor. The smell of moss, rotting leaves, and blood filled the air. _Blood?_ She reached up, touched her face, and found it gushing from her nose.

That's when she realized her mistake.

_No, no… it can smell blood, can't it?_

She rolled onto her side painfully. Her heart thudded. _Where is it… where is it at?_

There—a flash of black, red, white!

She tried to get up, but it was too late.

The monster loomed over her, only a few feet from where she'd fallen. Alena could make out the furious amber glow of its eyes, the red maw and feet, the look of stark hunger. Its ribs showed beneath a patchy black coat. An exoskeleton of sorts covered the outside of its joints in white bone.

Alena scrambled to sit up. Her nails dug furrows in the forest floor. _Oh please oh please no…_

"Calm down, doggy," she said aloud. It started at the sound of her voice. "Come here, just… come here and maybe I can find you some scraps or—"

It bared its teeth. A growl rumbled thickly in its throat. _Oh no._ It spat a scrap of fire at the ground, and fear broke her flesh out into tiny bumps.

_It breathes fire? Holy shit. _"Here, puppy," she said nervously. "Come here, and we can just laugh and forget about—"

It crouched. Its muscles bunched. The growling intensified.

Alena thought for a moment. _Do I sit here and get mauled, or do I jump up, run, get knocked down, and mauled?_

She decided to take her chances.

The second her feet touched the ground, she heard it lunge, and she shrieked as loudly as she could, just waiting for the fire to hit the back of her knees, just _waiting_ for the teeth to dig into the fat and muscle of her calf, just _waiting_ for—

"Get out of the way!"

_Huh?_ She stumbled, then turned. _There's someone else here?_

When she looked, she saw nothing at first. The woods were dark and as empty as ever—except they weren't. A flash of gold interrupted her vision. It burst against the flank of the leaping hound.

"Whoa!" Alena stumbled backwards, then fell flat on her bottom. _What's going on here?_ A four-legged fox stood before her attacker, its eyes burning red. Its fur was bright gold; red, flame-like tufts of fur protruded from its pointed ears. _That's what talked to me?_

The dog snarled right into the little fox's face. It growled right back, twice as fiercely.

"Big, ugly, and stupid," the golden beast sneered. "Exactly how I like 'em."

_It can talk,_ she thought, mystified. _It speaks the same language as I do._

The two creatures clashed again, claws and teeth flashing; as the black dog's fangs met the fox's shoulder, blood burst onto the forest floor. It wailed briefly, then turned its snout into the attacker's face and let loose a blast of fire.

_Whoa._ Alena watched, frozen by her fear, as the hungry beast that had chased her through the forest began to tremble in pain and rage. The little fox cast one last look at her. It barked: "What are you waiting for? _Run, you moron!_"

_Don't gotta tell me twice._ She jumped to her feet as quickly as she could, before casting one last look behind her. Her savior had leapt straight into the predator's face again, and their combatant snarls filled the young night.

_That monster could talk… and it saved my life, from another monster._ She frowned, picking up speed. She could see the open field beyond the forest now. _But why? Why would it do that?_

Alena had a feeling that the answer didn't matter much.

In that, she would be wrong.

* * *

_Rain,_ the man in the long coat thought, staring pensively into the night. _It has to be. I haven't smelled it in years, but I could never forget the smell of a rainstorm just before it breaks._

It was a good thing. Central Kalos hadn't seen rain in far too long; from Lumiose to Vaniville, rain had been scarce. The roads were scarcer. The people were scared.

And the Pokemon…

_The Pokemon are fucking insane._

But—then again—weren't the people, too?

Sycamore stared solemnly out of his window, into the darkening ruins of Lumiose, and he found himself doing something he hadn't done in years: he began to pray. Silently.

He began to pray for the swollen black clouds to spill, to burst and drench them with their quenching guts. He began to pray for cool days and warm nights. For the wild Pokemon near the city to keep their madness at bay.

He began to pray for the salvation of Kalos.

Most importantly—he began to pray that the solution he'd found was the right one.

_Come on, Calem,_ he thought, as beads of water rolled down the dirty glass. _I've got a lot at stake here. We all do._


	2. Pretext

_Author's Note:_ This may be a good time to discuss my rules.

1. I may only capture the FIRST Pokemon I encounter in each new area. An area counts as a location with a different name than the one before or after it.  
1a. If the first encounter is one I have obtained before, I can try for the first non-duplicate.  
1b. Gifts are allowed only if there is an open spot in the team.  
1c. Shinies, if encountered, may be caught but not used.

2. If a Pokemon faints, it is dead and must be permanently boxed.

3. All Pokemon must be nicknamed.

4. Exp All can't be turned on until after Route 8.

5. Mega Evolutions are permitted.

* * *

"Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words."

― Rumi

* * *

She limped away from the fight, the ultimate victor despite her bleeding shoulder. Her paw was a little weak, she found; if she put too much weight on it, the pain became almost completely unbearable, and as a result, she feared for her ability to take on any other wandering predators.

To make matters worse-it had begun to rain.

The drops of water sizzled when they hit her coat, and steam lifted into the humid forest air. The ground beneath her didn't muddy immediately; rather, it thirstily drank all it could, having been parched for so long.

She dragged herself into a burrow made by some Bidoof or Zigzagoon, ignoring the heavy scent as she curled up inside.

Despite her victory, she was bothered. She'd never have interfered with a beast like that before; Houndour were notoriously nasty, being not only a feisty Fire-type, but also a malicious Dark-type. They were ruthless fighters and vicious predators, and that one had been hungry, too.

_Prey is scarce,_ she thought, a little sadly._ Everything is, except people… and the best of us are who survive to the end._

That Houndour had not. She had never lost a match, and that was why she was alive. The only reason.

_Maybe I should've left that silly human girl for him,_ she thought. _She still wasn't exactly sure why she'd interfered; the brute was almost on top of that flighty blonde human, except…_

_Except there was something that wouldn't let me walk away. I couldn't just ignore it. And that's what's bothering me._

She remembered the shocked expression on the human's face as she spoke to her. _Fool. Does she think us all dimwitted? She must, though who can blame her if the only encounter she's had with us is that one._

The golden fox sighed. The rain was still heavy. She tucked herself tightly into a ball, still brooding and smarting from her wounds.

_I'll just rest and forget about it all,_ she thought, closing her eyes. _It won't matter too much later._

How wrong she was.

* * *

Calem Thomas was notorious for two things in Central Kalos.

One-he was the youngest drifter in the region. Barely sixteen, yet he'd been as far as Lumiose City on foot. When he passed through a village, he commanded presence, and, furthermore, he had enough money to pay for room and board, which was almost unheard of.

Two-he traveled with a Pokemon, which was more than a little unsettling to everyone they'd encountered so far.

"What do you think he wants?" His voice was deep, and more of a croak than anything-it made him hard for other humans to understand, but Calem had been traveling with him for long enough to know every soft consonant and rushed vowel.

"Maybe he wants us to find something for him." Calem shrugged. "Like the doc over in Santalune."

"I guess we're good at that, eh?" The amphibious creature straightened, then leaned over his companion's head.

"Yeah." Calem smiled. "We're good at that, alright."

The routes leading to Aquacorde had been fraught with fauna, but few of them dared to bother a human who walked with an elemental Pokemon. Calem's friend was Froakie, a swift-moving Water-type, and the first few seed-peckers who had dared cross them had been blown away by an aggressive Bubble attack.

The rain helped, too. Froakie's attacks only seemed to improve in the wetter climate, which both of them had been pleasantly surprised to discover. Kalos hadn't received rain in several years, and it only seemed to be helping.

_The upside to traveling with a Pokemon,_ Calem mused.

The downside?

_He eats all the food._

* * *

"Thank goodness for this rain," Alena said, pulling up a fistful of weeds with a smile. "I thought we were never gonna see any again."

Her aunt, kneeling over another patch of their vegetable garden, gave her a small nod, then went back to work. The two of them didn't have much cover from the storm.

_I don't mind,_ Alena thought cheerfully. _It feels so good on my skin. Besides, the chores must be done. No such thing as a lazy day here._

"Well, dearie, all droughts come to an end eventually."

_Do they, though?_ Alena wondered. Kalos had been in a perpetual dry spell, it seemed, since the dawn of time. Even keeping a vegetable garden for sustenance was a daily struggle that required a shield from the elements-and those elements were fierce dust storms and brutal sunlight that parched, withered, and killed everything it touched. The garden had to be protected and babied; it drank more water than Alena and her aunt did, and required several trips to their well.

"Alena, would you mind running to Aquacorde up the road?"

She snapped out of her thoughts. "Sure, Aunt Cory. What for?"

Her aunt sat back on her hands, wiping a strand of wet hair from her face. She left a tiny streak of mud, but Alena thought it only added to her weary beauty. "Oh, I think we're going to need some soil and fertilizer, and-"

"Maybe some food?" Alena asked tentatively. They hadn't eaten much but bread for a few weeks; she thought, just maybe, the fish market along the river would be open.

Aunt Cory's eyes widened. They were almost the same color as the rain, that almost silvery gray. "Oh, dear, I'm sorry. I know it's been awhile since we've eaten much. I just have to focus all of my attention on this garden, or we'll never survive the winter."

"I know," Alena said, smiling. "Don't worry about it, okay? If the fish peddler is out, I'll pick something up."

As she pulled herself up and started walking through the little village of Vaniville, an empty basket in her hands and set against her hip, Alena began to hum under her breath. It was too perfect a day not to, after all.

That is, until she approached the gate.

She stopped dead in her tracks.

_Amber eyes… sharp teeth… fire breath…_

_Fire…_

She clutched the handles of her basket tighter. The rain began to let off, but her skin began to ripple with a previously unfelt chill.

_I can't. I can't go out there again._

She glanced behind her, and, sure enough, her Aunt Cory was standing outside on their rickety wooden porch. She was smiling, a gentle gleam in her rain-colored eyes, and waved once to her niece.

Alena did her best to smile back, but it felt a little fragile on her face.

_Well. Aunt Cory did raise no coward. And she didn't raise no fool, neither._

With a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and slowly made her way to Aquacorde Town-albeit with a shadowy glance at every peripheral movement.

* * *

"This town ain't nothin', is it?" Calem observed, strolling along the main path. There were maybe fifteen buildings total; one had the appearance of a saloon, and sure enough, the sound of clinking glasses and bottles filled the air as he passed by. The rest of them seemed to be homes of some sort.

_Pretty sad,_ he thought. _But then again, they have a river. It was looking sad and brown, but it was a source of fresh water, and possibly fish as well. They're better off than a lot of the people and towns I've seen in Kalos so far._

"It's pretty tiny," Froakie agreed, hopping alongside him. "Where's the guy we're s'posed to see at?"

"I'm not sure. He didn't actually say where to meet him." Calem frowned, peering around. "Think he's at the bar?"

"You shouldn't go in there!"

"Don't worry, man. I'm not a drinker." He peered into the saloon's window, but the glass was so dirty and streaked from the rain that he couldn't see anyone specific.

"See him?" Froakie asked, his deep voice anxious.

"No… but I can't really see anything." Calem pulled away, sighing. "Maybe he never showed. Maybe I came all this way for nothing."

Froakie frowned in sympathy, but otherwise said nothing.

"Hey-is that a… is that a Pokemon?"

The two of them turned. A man had just come out of the saloon; drink clouded his eyes and slurred his speech almost unintelligibly, but he was pointing straight at Froakie-and his tone was malicious.

"Uh, yeah, it is," Calem said, standing closer to the little frog. "And you are a person. Anymore questions?"

"You're fuckin' kiddin' me, right? You brought that dangerous demon into our town, and you expect to walk outta here?" The man was staring at Froakie, captivated. "You got another thing comin'."

"Are you… threatening us?" Calem stuttered. Froakie drew himself up, eyes narrowing defensively.

"Damn straight I am." The man was now joined by a crowd, Calem saw; to his chagrin, many were drunk, and all of them were writhing and eager to fight.

_But we can't fight them,_ he thought, amazed at their bold violence.

"Froakie… we have to run," he muttered.

"Run?" The frog's bright yellow eyes gleamed in the dusk. "No. Never run."

"No, wait-"

"_Blargh_!" Froakie leapt forward, spewing bubbles from his mouth; they floated up into the angry townspeople's faces, popping and spewing. Screams of terror rose up from the Aquacordians; they backed away, swatting bubbles with their hands.

"See? It's trying to kill us!"

"Hey-what's going on here?"

Calem turned, groaning, expecting to see another person from Aquacorde. _Maybe this one will have a pitchfork._

Instead, he saw a girl with wide blue eyes, a long blonde braid, and a simple dress that almost reached her knees; her boots covered what leg was left. She was carrying a basket in one hand.

_Another one of these country bumpkins,_ he thought_. Ignorant and bigoted…_

But, though she was looking at Froakie with a kind of bright fear, she didn't scream or join in the angry riot; she looked from the small Pokemon to Calem. She seemed confused.

"Wait-is that yours?" She asked.

"Yes!" A man in hanging overalls shoved his way to the head of the mob. "This crazy has brought a dangerous beast into our town!"

"Has he hurt anyone?" The blonde girl asked. "Has he… did he chase anyone in here?" She looked pensive as she said it, and her eyes never left Froakie.

"Never," Calem assured her. "We're just passin' through, looking for a professor."

"Well, you heard the man," the girl said, eyeing the drunken mob. "Scram. Get outta here. He and this Pokemon ain't gonna hurt you. And if they do, then drive 'em out or shoot 'em. You got plenty of guns, I know you do, and there's way more of you than there are of them."

"Or maybe we'll just shoot him now, eh? And save ourselves the trouble." The man in front spat right into Froakie's face, and Calem gasped.

"Wait!" The girl cried, but the mob began to move in on the three of them relentlessly, all of them shouting and stumbling over one another.

"Run!" Calem shouted, and the three of them turned tail and made for the forest route beyond Aquacorde.

He half thought that, as their feet hit soft grass instead of hard dirt, the mob would give up and go on. But he had underestimated the hatred people still had for Pokemon in the more rural areas of Kalos like this. He had met people who were uneasy around Pokemon-but never had he met humans who outright strove to kill them!

"Hey, wait!" The girl skidded to a stop, right before the mouth of the forest. "We can't go in there! There's… all kinds of dangerous things," she said, eyes glazed over with fear.

"You think? There's even more dangerous things behind us," Calem cried. "Let's go!"

"I… I can't!"

"Are you really getting chased again?"

The young drifter thought someone from the mob had ambushed them, and he glanced around wildly, scooping Froakie into his arms and cradling him tight.

But, no-the grass parted, and a sleek golden fox padded out, her fur a bright flame against the dark forest.

"You!" The girl's eyes widened. "You again. How do you keep showing up just in time to save me?"

"Save you?" The fox shook her head, teeth bared. "Who says that's why I'm here?" She nodded to Calem and Froakie. "I'm here for those two."

"Huh?" _What the hell is going on here? _He backed away. "I'm just trying to survive an angry mob, alright?"

"The mob's not what you gotta worry about, honey," the fox said, smirking. "Get ready to fight, or you'll regret not being prepared."

Froakie, sensing the threat, leapt out of his arms. "Hey, leave us alone!"

"Why?" The fox sneered. "You chicken?"

"Wait," the girl said. "Wait, wait, wait! We're not enemies! I'm trying to get him away from the townspeople so they don't-"

"Can it, princess! You got in my way yesterday, but you won't get in my way now!"

Calem's head was spinning.

The mob couldn't be far now.

He looked to the blonde girl, but she looked just as confused as he was, as the fox and the frog faced off.

_Oh, I never shoulda come here..._


	3. Light it Up

"I ignite, so hold on  
'Cause we're about to light it up."

-Rev Theory, "Light it Up"

* * *

Alena wondered briefly if she'd fallen asleep and wandered into a nightmare.

She could hear the Aquacorde mob behind her, still moving as one furious, bloodthirsty organism; before her were two brawling monsters, all teeth, claws, and blurring, pounding limbs.

"Weakling!" The vixen panted, skidding to the side; her tiny paws left furrows in the damp earth. "What good is it for you to travel with one of these two-legged fools?"

The lanky frog darted forward, tightening his wrist. He brought it down in a chopping motion; the fox just barely escaped the hit. "There's nothing wrong with it!"

"Yeah?" She grinned. There was a tiny scratch above one of her eyes, Alena saw; it bled freely. "Why are you such a weakling, then? Running from those humans over there?"

"I don't see you doing anything about it," he retorted. The boy groaned. Alena had forgotten about him; she was transfixed by the fox, by her voice and her manner.

"Is that a challenge?" She huffed, tossed her head, and turned; her eyes bore straight into Alena's. She stepped back uneasily in response. "You afraid of a few meatbags, blondie?"

"M-me?" Alena asked, startled. _What have you gotten yourself into, huh? _She thought with some despair. "I… I don't really-"

"Come on, don't be such a moron." She stepped forward, in front of Alena. "You're all the same. And Pokemon who travel with people aren't any better."

The mob was here; their torches were luminous in the forest gloom. Their voices were indistinguishable from one another, but Alena heard the word "monster" numerous times. She could see their pale faces, their straw hats and overalls; they were faces she'd grown up seeing. Those faces had smiled at her in pigtails, had cried for her at the funeral, had protected her from wandering men.

And now she could see this side of them. This bigoted, hateful side. She'd never seen it in herself before, and now she was afraid to be seen as one with this group-by this fox and by this drifter boy.

"Who are you?" Alena asked her. She tossed her head back. Her eyes were as red as the blood from her scratches.

"Fennekin."

"Wait, wait-what are you about to do?" The boy asked, alarmed. His frog had hopped back to his side, rubbing the bite marks in his arms ruefully.

"Watch and learn." She parted her jaws, and Alena was dismayed to see a little fireball forming there, in the dark slot between her teeth and tongue.

_No, no-don't, please, please don't_-"Please don't do that, please don't use fire, please!" Alena didn't realize she was begging aloud, but her voice rose to frantic levels that even cut through the shouts of the Aquacordian people.

"Don't be such a baby." Fennekin shot the fireball. Alena shrieked-she hardly heard herself do it, but she certainly felt it climb up and out of her throat-and ran to hide behind the boy, cowering against his shoulders. He shouted something, but over the screams of the villagers, she couldn't tell what it was; maybe something like "Watch out!" or "Look out!"

The fireball scattered against the muddy ground; the people followed suit. Bullets began to fly in every direction; Fennekin began to dance, fur raised in stiff yellow hackles. Alena had one eye open; the other one was pressed against her human comerade's shoulder. _His jacket smells like dust and sunlight_, she thought deliriously. _He smells like the wasteland._

"Stop it!" Froakie jumped forward; Fennekin grinned, and prepared another fireball to shoot. Her mouth brimmed with the flames. "No more!"

He tackled her, and they rolled into the brush.

When Alena lifted her head again, the people were gone.

She'd bitten through her bottom lip, though she was just now tasting the blood. _First my nose, then my lip. I'll be all black and blue before the week's done._

"Hey, are you okay?" The boy asked her. "What happened to your face?"

"I-I'm fine," she said, though the blood overwhelmed her words. She spat a mouthful of it into the rain-moistened forest floor, then wiped her mouth shakily. "I guess I bit my lip."

"I mean-you freaked out really bad." He sounded confused. "Ain't you ever seen a Pokemon do that before? Use an attack like that, I mean?"

_The black dog, she thought. He was a Pokemon._ "I guess… I mean, I'm not fond of fire." She felt more than a little embarrassed at this point. _Maybe Aunt Cory did raise a fool. And not just any fool. A big fool._ "Fire and I go way back."

He looked her over, seeming troubled. His dark hair-it looked almost black in the dusky evening, though Alena couldn't remember what color it really was-lay in a tangled mass against his shoulders. "Alright. Hey, I never got your name."

"Alena. Alena Fulbright." She straightened, tried to smile. "How about yourself, stranger?"

"Calem. Calem Thomas." He held out his hand, and she gripped it tightly. _He's got a good handshake,_ she thought, pleased. For some reason she desperately wanted him to be a good person. She wanted the townspeople to be wrong about him. _Though I'm sure they're more terrified of Pokemon now than ever…_

With that thought, she shot a glare at Fennekin, who had just wrestled Froakie to the ground and pinned him under her dainty paws. "You didn't help anything, you know! They still hate you and Calem and his friend more than ever. And who can blame them?"

The fox tossed her head. "You should be thanking me, princess."

Calem sighed. "Froakie, come here."

He scrambled out from under her, hopping to his companion's side. He was shooting Fennekin dirty looks all the while.

"That's right, obey your master, froggy." Fennekin bared her teeth. "Weakling. All of you are, actually."

"Then why did you bother trying to help us?" Alena accused. "If you think so little of us, why not light us on fire and leave us for the townfolk?"

Even the thought sent a violent chill down her spine-one she couldn't suppress. She covered her arms with her hands, keeping her eyes glued to Fennekin's.

_Ah, I thought so!_ A cloud of doubt passed over the fox's red eyes. Even so, she turned away. "Well. Maybe I just couldn't stand to see you all die like Zigzagoons in a trap."

"Well, we didn't. So go," Alena said, as sharply as she could.

"Wait-are you kidding me?" Calem burst out. "Alena, I don't really know you that well, but-well, there's gotta be some kinda reason you and this bratty fox keep coming together. Do you believe in destiny?"

The two of them glanced at each other; Alena was pensive, Fennekin looked both intrigued and offended.

"Are you saying you want me to walk around with a leash on? Be a pet to this little pansy?" Fennekin asked, incredulous. "You want all Pokemon to be little slaves to the human race, is that it?"

"A slave?" Froakie jumped up. His wide yellow eyes glowed in the dusk; they weren't amber, like those vicious dog's eyes had been, but the purest of golds. His low voice was hard to make out, especially in passion. "You think I'm a slave, but you're wrong. Calem and I don't control each other. We're friends. And he's the reason I'm getting stronger."

She huffed, but Calem intervened: "You haven't evolved yet. You ain't been able to best Froakie, no matter how hard you try. You think you're tough-but how tough are you really?"

Alena thought about it herself. "What would I do with a… a Pokemon… anyway? I live in Vaniville. A village about half the size of Aquacorde. We live in a tiny house, my aunt and me. We grow a garden. We go to the fish market."

"You think you're really gonna be able to go back there?" Calem said, and his face was solemn. That daredevil smirk was gone. He looked serious as a house fire-which, to Alena, was plenty serious.

_Will I?_ Her stomach dropped. "I can't just… leave. I can't just do what you do."

"Maybe not." He shrugged. "It's definitely not the life for everybody. But, Alena, you're a sweet kid. You're nice enough to be able to know-Pokemon ain't evil, like those townspeople were makin' out to be." He smiled down at Froakie. "They're not much different than us."

"Yeah, right." Fennekin growled. "Don't compare me to this hick girl."

"Well, maybe that one's evil."

Alena laughed. Fennekin pouted. But her mind was turning gears, now-_-is it possible to get outta here? To… to be friends with a Pokemon? To see the world with someone like Calem? But how can I ever leave Aunt Cory and Vaniville?_

"Well? What do you say?" Calem asked, and he flashed her that smile. "I still gotta professor to meet. You two could come with us."

"What if I don't like it?" Alena asked. "What if I don't like traveling? What if I don't like being a-"

"Drifter?" Calem asked wryly. "Yeah, it's a dirty word, ain't it?"

Alena didn't know how to respond. All she could think about was the look on Aunt Cory's face when she'd waved goodbye to her niece as she left for the fish market. She thought of a house, long ago, engulfed in flames and terror, as something evil watched gleefully from the dark.

She thought of the fear in her heart-and the spark of excitement that was growing inside of her. At the adrenaline rush that had pushed at her feet as Fennekin had come to her rescue.

She glanced down at Fennekin now, wondering what she was thinking. _She doesn't even like me, does she? I mean, she did save my life._

"I do need to get stronger," Fennekin mused aloud. "I guess that won't happen here. Fighting the same weak little Pokemon over and over isn't getting me anywhere."

"There you have it." Calem smiled and crossed his arms. "I think you guys will come around to each other eventually. But for now, we gotta find somewhere to pack it in. These woods get dangerous at night, as we already know."

"I won't let anything happen," Froakie promised, throwing Fennekin another dark look. The two of them moved away, searching through the brush and the shadows for a place to sleep.

Alena, unsure, looked to Fennekin again. An awkward silence spanned between them.

Finally, the fox sighed. "I'm gonna need a name, you know."

"A name?" Alena asked, startled. "Isn't Fennekin your name?"

She rolled her eyes. "Moron. No. Fennekin is a species."

"So, I'm supposed to name you?" Alena thought of the fire in her mouth, the fire in her eyes. _I can only think of one person in the whole world._ "Rika."

"Rika?" The Fennekin flicked an ear. "You meatbags have strange names."

Alena started to walk away, but she stopped at that. "That was my mama's name." She continued walking.

After a moment, Rika began to follow.


	4. The Dawn

"For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world."

-Oscar Wilde

* * *

"I had that dream again last night."

Shauna was tense, and it worried Chespin. He had watched her sleep, and the terror in her voice as she cried out the same thing over and over had driven him outside. Her cries haunted him, no matter where he sought silence.

After all, she was such a different person when she slept. Her eyes lost that childish glow—those enormous green eyes, like jades in some shadowy jungle. In sleep, they rolled beneath her swollen eyelids, searching restlessly, and he feared for the day that they'd find what she was looking for.

"I know," he said, quietly. "I can tell." He put a tiny brown ferret paw on her hand, and leaned into her body heat fretfully.

"I just don't understand it," she murmured. "I don't know any of the people in this dream. And I don't know the… the monster…"

"Hush, child," Chespin said, scrambling up and onto her shoulder. It was his favorite perch, and she normally laughed when he did it, especially when he tickled her little ear with his whiskers and with the leafy green tendrils on his head. She offered no giggles. "It's morning now, see? The sun's coming up."

"It's red," Shauna said miserably, staring out of her dirty glass window. "It's red like blood. Like…"

"Shh," he said again, even more gently. "There's nothing to worry about."

"But there is." Her normally chirpy voice was solemn today. "And you know it. A lot of people, and I don't know a single one of them. How will I know who to watch out for?"

Chespin was at a loss. He was the one who had told her dreams were prophetic if you had them over and over; it was something he'd been taught as a child, after all, and Shauna was such a child herself that he'd been unable to resist educating her.

After a few moments of silence, the young girl looked up. Her green eyes were silver with unshed tears, but her smile was bright as the sun's warm kiss outside. It was real. Chespin sighed with obvious relief.

"It'll be alright, won't it?"

"As long as you promise me you'll stick with me," Chespin said, pressing his face into the narrow space between her dark hair and her tawny neck. "As long as you promise me you'll stop worrying about the dreams."

"What about the tree?" She asked, and she bit her lip. The tears were receding. _An interesting thing, these humans,_ Chespin thought, not for the first time. _Their tears come so easily. So readily. I've never seen anything like it. And then, moments later, they can smile._

He envied it, in a way.

"The tree. Yes. We'll see the tree." He hopped down, approaching the window. The sun spread its glorious wings over the sky; with a phoenix's heat, it burned away the remaining stars and shadows. His pointed face was bathed in gold and crimson, and even through the glass he felt the heat of the awakening wasteland. "We have to wait for the other one, though, and then we have to meet the Professor."

"Yes," Shauna said, and patted her lap.

Chespin went to her reluctantly; she was all better, with a child's innocent emotional flushing, but he was on edge now. The two of them knew so little; he knew only of Sycamore's paper-thin promise, of his growing affection for this scared little girl from Santalune, and of the enormous task they were supposedly undertaking.

_I hope he knew what he was doing, hiring a drifter for something like this._ Shauna's hand found the spot on his back that he liked, and he relaxed. _I'll keep him in line. For her, if nothing else._

* * *

_So much for rain, eh?_ Calem pushed his hair out of his eyes, scowling into the burning Kalos sun. _Not surprising, I guess._

"Whatcha lookin' at, huh?" Froakie hopped next to him, face serene—despite all that had occurred the evening before, and despite all that lay ahead.

"Just wishin' the rain would come back, I guess." _It'll be a hot trip from here to Santalune, and then to Lumiose. Maybe we'll do most of it by night. Although… it's more dangerous that way._

"If wishes were fishes, the ocean'd be full." Froakie sounded pleased with himself. "I've heard you say that."

Calem laughed halfheartedly. "Yeah, I guess I have, haven't I?" He shrugged, looking into the sparse forest. Sun didn't just filter through the branches—it _pierced_ them in heavy gold shafts, illuminating the barren ground and crunchy leaves. "Wanna wake the girls so we can eat?"

"Wake up foxy?" He frowned immediately. "Are you trying to get me beat up?"

"No need," came a yawning voice. Calem turned; Alena was pushing a brittle branch away from her face, rubbing grit from her eyes. "Not easy to sleep with the sun comin' up like that. So what do you have to eat?"

"Great berries. I found a tiny bush on my way here. They're tough now, but dried berries have a certain appeal." He pulled his bag from his shoulder, revealing the pieces of shriveled fruit. Alena took one hesitantly, but her face lit up when she bit into it. "By the way, where's…?"

"Uh, Rika?" She said, around a mouthful of sun-dried berry. "She said she didn't need me for food. She can hunt for herself, she says." She swallowed noisily. "Got any water?"

"Little bit left." He pulled a canteen out. "Don't be greedy. Leave some for Froakie and me."

She took a careful sip, studying Froakie as she did. He blushed under her curious gaze. "So, you all eat and drink the same as us?"

"I dunno about all of 'us', but I sure as heck do," he answered, taking the canteen.

"But—I saw you spit… bubbles yesterday. Were they water, or were they acid or somethin'?" She tilted her head. Blonde hair—kinked from her braid—fell over her shoulder. Calem could forgive her ignorance in that moment.

Froakie, however, narrowed his eyes impatiently. "It's water, 'cause I'm a Water Pokemon, but it's not exactly drinking water. It's for fighting and defense and stuff. The water burns the skin."

Her eyes widened. Calem laughed. "Don't worry, kid. He's not gonna hurt you. He attacked the townfolk in Aquacorde last night out of defense. They threatened us all, even _you_, and I'm not sorry about it in the least. You shouldn't be either."

Alena sighed. "No? Seems like I got plenty to be sorry for."

Calem wasn't sure how to respond. After all, he'd never had a home, per se; the feeling of having roots somewhere made him squeamish, in fact. He loved being on the road, and, more importantly, he loved being on the road with Froakie, a Pokemon who had become so _un_beastlike to him that he sometimes forgot what it was like for other people to be around him.

"You'll be able to go back soon enough. Those townspeople—they got short memories, I'll wager."

He'd been trying to make her feel better, but her eyes flamed at that.

"You callin' us stupid, drifter boy? Just 'cause we don't travel all around the world like you doesn't mean we have dirt for brains. You hear?"

"No? You all seemed like damn fools last night, trying to drive me out because I was walking with a Pokemon." He narrowed his eyes at her. _She don't know it, but she's not so different from the rest of them._

"Damn fools? Says the person traveling with—"

And she stopped, because in that moment, Alena Fulbright heard herself. She heard the years of ingrained fear, the years of bigotry and prejudice, and she felt it like a spear straight through her heart.

Calem didn't reply. He glanced at Froakie, who took a berry and then hopped away; his wet blue skin gleamed against the dry grass and skinny trunks, but eventually he disappeared into the thickets.

"I've got stuff to do and places to go. You wanna go back there and live your sheltered life? Fine. Ain't no skin off my back." And he followed his Pokemon.

"Ouch, princess. You gonna take that from that fruit seed?"

Rika parted the grass with her long face; her fur looked freshly cleaned, but there was just the tiniest trace of blood on her maw—presumably from her morning meal.

Alena stared at her, a lump rising in her throat. She pictured her Aunt Cory, rocking slowly back and forth with a little girl pressed into her arms. She could still smell the smoke from that day, still see it parting above her in the desolate night sky. The flames warmed her bare arms; the tears chilled her cheeks. And over and over again, that rocking back and forth, no words spoken, only a well of shock and desperation no one wanted to dip into.

_So what do I choose?_ She thought, glancing from Rika to the forest's entrance; she could see the sparse trail back to Aquacorde from here, though it was distant enough. _Do I choose a sheltered life with those townfolk and Aunt Cory, or do I dare venture out into this world that killed my parents? That would kill me, if I let them?_

"Hey—I asked you a question," Rika said, irritated. "I swear, you me—"

"I am gonna take it from 'that fruit seed', because he's right," Alena answered, deadpan. "He's right about it all. I—I _do_ live a sheltered life. I am a bigot, just like them. But I don't have to be. And maybe…" She thought of their faces, drunk but smeared with fear beneath the malice. She remembered the screams as Rika shot fire from her mouth. "Maybe I can help them."

"I don't follow," the Fennekin said, confused. "Maybe I missed something."

"Don't you see? Those people—they _hate_ you! They hate Froakie, and they hate every Pokemon. And… I used to think we had a reason, you know. A reason to hate and fear you. But maybe we can change that."

"There _is_ a reason you fear us," Rika retorted, a smile creeping over her face. "The reason was pretty clear to you last night, too, wasn't it? When I was—"

"Stop," Alena interrupted. "I know you want to act tough in front of me, but you can't change my mind. Aunt Cory didn't raise no coward… and she didn't raise no closed-minded fool, either." She clenched one fist and brought it towards her. "No, ma'am."

"Ugh, too many names. My head's starting to hurt," Rika complained, sniffing and turning away. "Well, when you're done having your little moment, let me know. I'd like to find something to wrestle with."

She disappeared, too—in the same direction as Calem and Froakie.

Alena stared at the space she'd stood at, then turned towards the forest exit. [i]Maybe I'll just go say goodbye. Maybe that would help things.[/i]

She winced at the scorch of sun on her skin, but rejoiced at the sight before her. A sprawling desert trail, punctuated with a few tufts of sparsely-watered grass here and there, and a dusty trail leading straight through Aquacorde.

_Well… here goes nothing._

But before she could take a step, a tiny, timid voice reached her ears:

"Don't go back. Please don't go back, miss."

A worm crawled out of one of those sparse little grass patches, its eyes enormous and fretful. Alena took a cautious step backward, her throat filled with rising bile almost immediately.

"Was that you, that just said that, or am I hearing voices?" She demanded.

"It was me." The worm paused. It was a dark, unassuming gray color with a ruff of whitish lace around its neck. _Odd-looking, but not all that threatening, to be honest._ With that thought, Alena crossed her arms under her breasts and waited for the creature to explain itself.

"I—I heard you in there, just now," it confessed, its tiny voice carrying up to her with some effort. She strained to listen; if it had been windy, it would've been impossible. "About, um, people and Pokemon and how they hate each other." It tilted its head. "I believe that it's right. I—I have enough predators as it is, so why should humans be one, too?"

"A lot of humans are _prey_," she retorted, thinking of her parents in that fire, and of herself with a black dog with hate in its heart.

"Prey?" It looked at her helplessly. "What big, monstrous creature such as yourself could be prey to a little Scatterbug?"

Alena studied it, wondering. She supposed that not all Pokemon were carnivorous creatures, out for human flesh. Many had their hatreds ground into them out of fear, she supposed—such as this little guy, and his family of… Scatterbugs.

"And I saw that mob, last night," it said, shaking its head. "You're one of them, but you're not _one_ of them."

_Aren't I?_ She wondered. Then she straightened. This little Scatterbug's face steeled her resolve once and for all. _No. I am not one of them in that sense. I am Alena Fulbright, all my own person, and this person won't be afraid anymore._

"Would you—would you like to come with me, then?" She asked the insect larvae.

It rolled its beady eyes toward her, and it seemed to smile. It was hard to tell, but its tiny voice even seemed to quiver with happiness.

"Do you really mean it?"

"Yes, I do." Alena smiled, then, pushing away her reluctance, lowered her arm to the ground. The Scatterbug inched its way slowly, _slowly_ up her arm, until its sticky bottom half clung to the right shoulder of her dress. "Although, you probably don't have a name either, do you?"

"Name?" It asked. Then: "Oh, right, you humans call each other things, don't you? What is your name?"

"I'm Alena Fulbright. And I'm pleased to meet you… Abel."

It made a tiny noise of delight, and she couldn't help but grin in response.

_They're not all bad! They're really not! This one is ugly and tiny, but it's not bad at all—in fact, it's so nice, I don't know how I'm gonna let him near Rika._

"Well, in that case, Abel," she said, "there's someone I need to introduce you to."


End file.
